


Henry growing up.

by orphan_account



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-26
Updated: 2014-09-26
Packaged: 2018-02-18 19:46:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2360042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry growing up in Storybrooke where the normal rules don't apply.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Henry growing up.

When Henry is five, he's sent to kindergarten. There's not really a lot of other kids he remembers but there's one kid; a bully whose father works at some business firm who acted like he was king of the playground. He remembers him clearly for he's the first and last person who ever bullied Henry. During recess the bully comes up to him right as he's about to go down the slide. He gets pushed down, tumbles sideways and head over landing on the gravel below, crying as his knee bleeds.

After that the bully never disturbs him again along with his other classmates. They all look at him like he'd curse them if they'd touch them and when he complains to his mother over dinner she just smiles.

"You don't need them Henry." She says as she stabs a piece of meat with her fork.

Henry doesn't say anything back, swinging his legs back and forth until his mother's disapproving stare makes him stop. He absently fingers his Hulk band-aid on his knee until his mother stares at him again.

"Come now Henry. I made your favorite, apple pie." She smiles invitingly and cuts him a slice. He thinks nothing of digging in and listening to his mother recount her day. She winks as she talks about having to close down a certain business firm department because of some scam issues. At first he thinks she has a twitch in her eye. It's not until months later, in the middle of the night, that he understands the significance but it's so absurd that he immediately dismisses it and falls to sleep.

.

When he's six, he doesn't really think about his old classmates, eager to find people who will actually talk to him in the first grade. For all of Kindergarten he's been alone in the playground and had started taking to going to the library. It's only fitting his first friendship is founded in the library as well.

The girl was reading a book about fairy tales. She has pigtails and a crooked smile but she didn't mind sharing the book she was reading. A few weeks later and they're thick as thieves. Mom seems happy that he's happy and everything is nice.

"Wanna see my castle?" She asks when they're both waiting for their parents to pick them up after school. Regina can't always pick him up so depending on the problems around town she's either really early or really late. Her parents come later, he's never actually seen them but in his six-year-old mind that's not strange.

"Castle?" He asks. He looks around as if he'll see the turrets in the distance; dark stone and flags waving in the air just like the picture book they read yesterday.

"It's not a real castle," She says sadly, "but we can pretend it is. No one really goes there so it'll be ours!" Her tone becomes excited at the end as if there's nothing else better.

"Where is it?" Henry asks, curiosity gripping him like when a mystery murder teases its readers with hints.

She beckons him closer and whispers in his ear.

"I'll be there." He says and his stomach feels funny when she grins at him with her sweet, crooked grin.

.

As the mayor of an entire town, Regina Mills doesn't really have a lot of time to spend at home. Henry understands and usually he stays obediently at home reading or playing on his old gameboy.

Today, though, is a special day.

He picks up the fancy watch his mother gave him, sets the alarm and waits for the sound of his mother's engine to fade away. When twenty minutes passes he walks out the front door, looks both ways when crossing the streets and follows the stench of fish and the cries of seagulls.

She's already there, her hair not done in ponytails but natural, sitting mid-back, a book sat on her knees. The castle is just some old rickety wooden platforms, aged, with four pointed roofs over "lookouts". It's old and if his mother saw him playing here she'd say it was a health hazard and have it tore down immediately.

It's perfect.

They sit for hours talking about everything and nothing.

"Your parents aren't worried about where you are?" Henry asks, looking around. They're eating lunch, Henry having had the sense to bring some pop tarts and crackers with him. They're sharing because she had forgotten and admitted that she thought they wouldn't be out here so long.

"They…" She says and then stares at the sand. Her eyes cloud over and when she doesn't say anything, Henry thinks he understands.

"Did you know I was adopted?" He says, trying for casual but not knowing if he accomplished. He's not looking at her but at his lap full of crumbs. He wipes them away absent-mindedly, along with the sweat on his hands.

She looks up for a flicker of a second and Henry can't really tell what she's thinking but she nods.

"At least your parents didn't give you away." He says and he's surprised at how bitter he sounds. It's not like he doesn't have a nice life here in Storybrooke, being the mayor's kid has benefits and it's not like the kids tease him for being adopted. In fact, they leave him alone.

Instead of being mad or sad that he zoned out for his own mini pity party, she puts a hand on his.

"I understand." She says with teary eyes but the sweetest smile.

After that they're practically inseparable. When summer starts they go to the castle every other day, giggling and playing, pretending their animals and heroes and other kid stuff. It's fun, it's free and it's a secret from his mother which sends his rebellious genes alight.

One day, though, she doesn't show up. It's fine, he thinks, maybe she got sick and couldn't get the message across. Or maybe her parents caught her and grounded her. He waits until he can't wait any longer, for fear being grounded himself. It's just one day, he repeats, as he walks up the stairs back to his room.

Except she doesn't show up for the rest of the week, or the week after that. When he goes back to school as a second grader he doesn't see her until one day at lunch. When he confronts her, she plays as if she's never seen his face before.

It's not until he notices her going back to Ms. Mason's class, their first grade teacher, that he gets it.

"You failed a grade?" He asks, cornering her in the library. Before summer started they silently agreed to meet underneath the apple tree for recess unless it was raining. He should've known she was at the library if she wasn't by their spot.

"I don't know what you're talking 'bout." She says, her pretty lips in a frown.

"It's alright, I won't tell anyone."

"I'm suppos'ta be in the first grade." She says firmly. He looks at her, at her ponytails and the book from last year. The same book they shared on their first day of friendship.

"It's not nice to lie you know." Henry repeats what she said, a year ago when he was tugging on her ponytails for fun and said he didn't know who did it when she turned around to glare at him.

"I'm not lying, I'm a first grader." She gives him the stink eye and returns to her book, staring stubbornly at the pages as if staring hard enough will make him leave.

"Why weren't you at the castle?" He asks because no way is he letting this go.

"What's that?" She asks, right as the bell rings, signalling the end of recess.

It's then, as he tracks her movements out the window overseeing the playground that he notices that not only did she fail first grade, but so did all of his classmates. But then his little mind adjusts himself.

Of course they didn't, he thinks, Ms. Mason must've gotten a new job as a second grade teacher. That's all, and most of his classmates just got grouped in with their old teacher.

But then, that would mean she lied to him for some other reason.

In the upcoming days and weeks he tries to snake the truth. In the end she screams at him to leave her alone when he tries to drag her back to the castle. He will admit it wasn't the best method of trying but she was a liar. He gets a pink slip for his troubles and a time-out.

He doesn't try again.

.

He's eight and a third-grader and instead of being told to sleep upstairs, he's finally allowed to attend one of his mom's parties. It's all business suits and clinking glasses and it's honestly boring but it's also his mom's birthday. He's dressed in a plain black suit, his hair gelled back but there's one piece of hair by his ear that keeps coming loose.

Honestly, when his mom said it'd be a party, he thought it would be more fun. He remembers when he was younger, eager to creep downstairs to spy. If only young Henry knew how boring it truly was.

He doesn't really say anything for most of the night until the birthday cake comes out, a 35 sticking out and lit.

"Weren't you 35 last year?" He asks of his mother. Then thinks some more. "And the year before that?" The people around them chuckle and she frowns, "No, I was  _34_  last year."

Henry can specifically remember her being 35 two years ago. He knows this because he was in charge of decorating the cake. He remembers asking Mr. Glass to get those candles that never blow out. He remembers hearing his mother's frustration floating up the stairs along with the polite chuckles of her co-workers.

He remembers the little two red 35 candlesticks that wouldn't go out when he relit them and blew with all his might when he snuck down and took it from the kitchen counter.

"You're 35." He says firmly. He repeats it, wondering why she'd lie about her age. More presents maybe? He repeats it until even the guests stop laughing and start staring.

"Henry." His mother says, bending down a little to better reach his eye level. "I was born 1974. I'm 35."

"He's just confused." Mr. Glass says and when everyone else nods, Henry starts doubting himself.

He sits in the corner for the rest of the night and the next morning, he asks for his mother's birth certificate. She stares at him with a raised eyebrow as if asking if he really wants to do this but she acquiesces when he says please.

They both go to the records in town hall and he's dismayed to find it exactly as she says, 1974.

He's not invited to another birthday party, his mother burning his invitations before he can even catch eye of it. She does not tell him her age when he asks again, instead sidestepping it like a true politician.

.

He's eight and he's two months from being a fourth grader. Lately his mom's been swamped with work and his birthday is in two weeks. He wants to go on vacation.

He goes to his mom and begs and pleads and it's not like Storybrooke is a big town or anything. She can take vacations if she really wanted to.

She resists and resists and asks what else he'd like for his birthday instead but all he can reply with is a vacation.

She lets up. "One week, Disney World." He cheers and they pack up and he almost forgets that he hasn't a friend for more than a school year since the first grade.

They get as far as the town sign proclaiming, "Leaving Storybrooke" before a wolf comes across the road. The car flips, everything turns topsy-turvy and he blacks out.

When he wakes up, it's to the sounds of ambulance. His breath quickens when he turns the driver seat, his mother bleeding from the forehead and unconscious. He looks left, right, unbuckles his seat belt and tries for the door.

Surprisingly it opens without a hitch. He goes around to the other side of the door, tries to pull it open from the outside but it's too busted. He tries to look inside the glass but it's cracked and he's afraid if he presses up against it, it'll shatter even more.

The police sirens come closer but he's not looking at that, he's looking at the road, where the wolf was.

He passes the sign right as Graham and the ambulance come up.

"You're not hurt are you?" A woman in white says. She steps closer at the same time the wolf comes out, blocking her from him. She backs away a little and then another set of sirens come on, the wolf scampering away harmlessly. They both turn to Graham who nods in acknowledgement.

"I'm fine." He says, his voice wobbling a little. "Is my mom going to be alright?" He asks. He watches as they strap her to a gurney and into the ambulance.

"She'll be fine." The nurse says even though she grimaced when she looked back at the ambulance. She offers her hand and steps closer, "Come on, I'll bring you home."

She gets bitten by the wolf as soon as she passes the "Leaving Storybrooke" sign and he yells for help in time for Graham to shoot his gun near the wolf's right leg.

His mother comes home from the hospital on his birthday. She needed stitches on her forehead and she'll scar on her arm from where a shard of glass cut the skin but she'll live.

Henry is glad.

Two months later, he's frustrated.

No one remembers the car accident. The car itself appears one morning in the garage with no warning and no one has any recollection of it ever being sent to the repairman. The stitches are gone and there's no scar on her arm.

He asks about it. Did she get plastic surgery? Why didn't she tell him?

She doesn't know what he's talking about. Sheriff Graham doesn't know what he's talking about. Doctor Whale doesn't know what he's talking about. The nurse, whose injury from the wolf forced her to get a walking stick, doesn't know what he's talking about.

His mother insists it's a nightmare brought on by reading the grim version of Little Red Riding Hood. She says they never planned to go to Disney World. He says she's wrong. He goes on and on about the car ride, the journey, the green sign saying-

He stops abruptly. She tells him to play with his toys and stop reading goosebumps or whatever's giving him his nightmares.

Instead he goes to the computer and on the internet.

He googles, "Storybrooke, Maine."

Nothing comes up. It's a small town but he knows records must be  _somewhere_. He goes to google maps. Nothing. He finds  _any_ and all map: population density, road maps, local Maine maps. There's no Storybrooke  _anywhere_.

The next day, he shows it to his mother but Regina Mills does not tolerate nonsense. Not even from her own son and while he's not had any first-hand experience with his mother's anger, he knows it's not pretty.

She tells him its nonsense and when he yells at her, she yells back. It's angry and dumb and there are tears in his eyes.

"Why don't you believe in me?" He yells. "I'm telling you there was a wolf and you were in the hospital-"

"Because I was never in a hospital! Henry, it was a  _dream_."

"Then what's this!?" He pushes the monitor almost off its stand.

"It's a small town. You know internet lines don't run well here-"

"But there has to be  _something_. Why isn't there-"

"Henry-"

"Have you noticed no one ever comes here? No truckers, no lost people, I asked Granny and no one ever goes to Granny's Bed and Breakfast.  _No one_."

"Henry-"

"Why won't you believe me?"

"Henry!" She booms, her lips twisted in a distasteful frown and her fists clenched. "It was just a dream! Nothing's happening, now turn off your computer and come down to dinner."

"...No."

"No?" She asks.

"I'm not hungry." He lies. He's starving but she doesn't need to know that. There's a silence as he picks up the nearest book, an avengers comic book, and reads it until she leaves, closing the door softly.

He knows what he saw.

The next day he goes out to the town line to wait. He ordered something online with his mother's credit card. It's a cheap wristband and he ordered on premium so it'll arrive today. Hopefully his mom won't notice a missing 20 bucks.

He waits for the better part of three hours, operation: sloth, he dubs in his mind. Then he sees the FedEx truck.

He eyes the truck from behind the green sign, for safety reasons, and watches as the truck disappears in thin air.

He tells his mother later. She doesn't believe him. No one believes him.

He goes around town the next week searching for clues when he spots his kindergarten bully.

Exactly as he was three years ago.

.

He's nine and in the fourth grade and everyone thinks he's crazy.

"Regina," Mr. Glass says, Henry's not suppose to listen in, that's why they locked the door but he's been good at not following orders lately. "You need to do something about Henry."

"Why do you think I grounded him?" Regina grouses, she's out of sight of the keyhole but the clicking tells him his mother's pacing.

"Regina don't you think-"

"Don't you say it." She says, appearing in Henry's limited view only to stare down Mr. Glass.

"Regina." Mr. Glass says, short and exasperated.

"My son is  _not_  crazy."

"Just think, one session with Dr. Hopper. You know," Mr. Glass continues in a slightly more chipper tone, "he does the first session for free." He raises his eyebrow as if to say,  _It's a good offer, better take it_ , like a salesman at a flea market and not suggesting Henry needed mental help. Henry never did like Mr. Glass.

His mother pauses and Henry's breath stills with her. He's not crazy, he's not.

"Regina." Mr. Glass says, shifting subtly more to his mother who sits down next to him with an ungraceful plop. "He climbed the clock tower yelling about how time's stopped. If the whole town wasn't there watching who knows what would've happened-"

Regina snaps, "I get it." Her eyes sharp for all of one second before they fall to her lap. A humorless smile plays across her lips. "All this time, he's been going on about some kind of magic or curse. Last week he was tearing his room for his class photos and he didn't stop until I grounded him for three weeks and took away his computer. Even then he kept spouting on about proof." In that moment Henry sees as his mother's shoulders shake. How her lips turn to a frown. It makes him a little guilty. But he knew he was right, it was the only explanation. "What should I do?"

"A few sessions with Doctor Hopper. The boy will be better in no time." Mr. Glass says, offering a pat of condolence to his mother's shoulder. Instantly she stiffens, shaking the hand off and moving to stand.

"Fine." She says, drawn out and shuddering as if she was the one everyone called crazy. "Fine."

.

Henry is ten years old and has been going to Dr. Hopper's office for about a year. He has no friends in school and with each visit to the local therapist, his mother has gotten increasingly frustrated and distant.

Henry is alone and unloved both from his biological parents and his adopted one.

He's sitting at a table alone when Ms. Blanchard comes by and offers him a book.

"Once Upon A Time"

And the rest is history.


End file.
